{"id":31215,"date":"2013-02-21T00:06:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T08:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=31215"},"modified":"2013-02-21T00:06:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T08:06:08","slug":"languages-and-culture-merit-badge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/31215","title":{"rendered":"Languages and Culture Merit Badge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 4,819 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,550 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s Merit Badge, Each Other\/Languages and Culture<\/a>, I was excited to try my hand at learning American Sign Language.<\/p>\n

(Get it? Try my hand? Sign language? I slay myself).<\/p>\n

When I first started this badge, I only knew one phrase in American Sign Language (that\u2019s ASL, for us in the know): \u201cRock on!\u201d\u00a0 Turns out what I thought was \u201cRock on!\u201d and what I sported all through my last Jefferson Airplane concert last summer was really ASL for \u201cI love you.\u201d Now I\u2019m starting to rethink what I thought was my traditional Hawaiian greeting \u2026 I thought I was saying something like, \u201chang loose, bro,\u201d but for all I know I could be saying, \u201cplease pass the toilet paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I started slow\u2014with the ASL alphabet. Once I mastered that (okay, okay, you got me; mastered is a strong word!), I moved on to numbers. Just when I thought I could anticipate the next one, they threw a curve ball at me: for instance, the sign for three is not what you\u2019d expect. Oh no! Middle finger, index finger, and THUMB.<\/p>\n

Well played, ASL masters, well played.<\/p>\n

Once I got my numbers and alphabet down (this was fun!) I moved on to small pieces of poetry.<\/p>\n

Helpful hint from me to you: I wouldn\u2019t start with “Jabberwocky.” Your fingers will get cramps.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I recommend something short and easily memorized, like “Who Has Seen the Wind,” by Christina Rossetti:<\/p>\n

Who has seen the wind?<\/em><\/p>\n

Neither I nor you;<\/em><\/p>\n

But when the leaves hang trembling,<\/em><\/p>\n

The wind is passing through.<\/em><\/p>\n

Who has seen the wind?<\/em><\/p>\n

Neither you nor I;<\/em><\/p>\n

But when the trees bow down their heads<\/em><\/p>\n

The wind is passing by.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or perhaps a little Ogden Nash:<\/p>\n

Now another day is breaking,<\/em><\/p>\n

Sleep was sweet and so was waking.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Lord, I promised you last night<\/em><\/p>\n

Never again to sulk or fight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such vows are easier to keep<\/em><\/p>\n

When a child is fast asleep<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, Oh Lord, for your dear sake<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll try to keep them when awake.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good advice, Ogden dear.<\/p>\n

I recommend a good mani before a long ASL. You\u2019ll be staring at your hands, and nothing is more distracting than a hangnail or a chewed cuticle. Unless it\u2019s the worry that you may have offended a Hawaiian friend during your last cruise.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I dream to work my skills up to song level. Maybe it\u2019s the scene from Napoleon Dynamite<\/em>, maybe it\u2019s my soft spot for mooshy ballads sung by Bette Midler, maybe it\u2019s my secret dream of a flash mob of ASL-ers \u2026 can\u2019t you just see it? I may only be halfway through “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” but someday soon, I will move beyond the kindergarten playlist, and into National Anthem territory.<\/p>\n

I can see it now.\u00a0 Girls, this badge is just too much fun. I\u2019m hooked!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,819 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,550 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[363,548,566],"class_list":["post-31215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters","tag-gladsome-sisters","tag-maryjanesfarm-farmgirl-sisterhood","tag-mba-jane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}